Spaanse minister verwacht dat EU-landen posistief zijn over begrotingsaanpassingen Spanje en Portugal (en)

The Spanish Minister of Economy and Finance, Elena Salgado, is confident that the Eurozone countries will back the adjustment plans of Spain and Portugal, which are being examined on Monday by the Euro Group.

"Every country has supported the measures we have taken in Spain and Portugal and I hope that the same will be true today," Salgado said on her arrival in Luxembourg, which is host to the Euro Group meeting.

The minister does not believe, however, that the Commission has taken a position yet on this issue. The Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn i, has made "a preliminary assessment," but said the final evaluation of the measures would not take place until around 15 June, said Salgado.

The Euro Group will have to analyse in detail the additional measures taken by Spain and Portugal in response to the requirements set by their European partners as a condition for establishing a temporary financial stabilisation mechanism for member states with solvency problems.

“I believe," continued the minister, "that the reforms we have put on the table at this time are important reforms. Those of the labour market, of course, but also the end of the financial sector reforms, the restructuring of savings banks ... I think that with these reforms we will be fine."

She reiterated that "the Commission and international bodies have always told us that our labour market had a certain level of rigidity and recommended that we should introduce various elements to make it more flexible."

“The reform we are now discussing," she added, "will deal with that issue, as well as with the duality of the labour market. In any case, it will help to strengthen our growth, which is what we need at the end of the day”.

Ecofin plans to support Estonian's entry into the euro area

Following the Euro Group meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, the ministers of the entire EU will hold the second meeting of the Special Committee set up by the European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, to overhaul the rules of the economic and monetary union in order to prevent crises such as the present one.

The EU's Economy and Finance Ministers will meet on Tuesday, when they are expected to give their backing to Estonia's entry to the Eurozone on 1 January 2011. The decision will be taken on the basis of the positive reports published to date by the European Commission and the European Central Bank.

On 12 May, the EC published its convergence report, in which it stated that the Baltic state "clearly" fulfils the macroeconomic criteria demanded, and that it is the only one of the nine Euro hopefuls - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden - to have met these requirements.

In order to be able to join the monetary union, candidates are required to have healthy public finances and stable prices and exchange rates, long-term interest rate convergence and national monetary legislation that is fully compatible with European treaties, especially in relation to the independence of national central banks.

The current chair of the Ecofin, Elena Salgado, will be responsible for writing to Van Rompuy to recommend that the leaders authorise Estonia's membership of the single currency.

The enlargement of the Eurozone will be discussed at the next summit of European leaders, to be held in Brussels on 17 June, and will finally be officially approved during the Ecofin meeting on 13 July.

Meanwhile, the Ecofin will this Tuesday also give the Commission a mandate to start talks with Switzerland and Liechtenstein in order to extend the principles of the Union's "code of conduct" on corporate tax regulations to these countries. This code was adopted in 1998 to bring the tax regimes of the various Member States more into line with each other, in order to avoid unfair tax competition.

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  Video: Statement by the Spanish Finance Minister, Elena Salgado, before the Eurogroup meeting